Table of Contents

• About FrontSeat
• Meet the Consortium
• Events

• Upcoming events
• Past Events
• FrontSeat on Zenodo

The main goal of the FrontSeat project is to increase the research and academic prospects of Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava by reinforcing collaboration with research groups from Western Europe, intensifying research in advanced automatic control, and opening up new collaboration channels through academic and industrial networking.

The project aims to train excellent young and senior researchers and project managers and effectively disseminate and exploit the research results of STUBA. Other goals include establishing a new PhD curriculum, organizing conferences and seminars with industry, and the initiation of an academic-industrial research and innovation cluster.

The FrontSeat project involves a collaboration between three partner universities: Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (STUBA), Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), and Università Di Pisa (UNIPI).

STUBA is the project coordinator and is the best-ranked technical university in Slovakia, with a focus on computer and technical sciences and engineering. The research group on automatic control holds a strong position in Slovakia, and it is becoming increasingly recognized internationally. The Coordinator, Prof. Miroslav Fikar, has extensive knowledge of research quality systems and mechanisms, connections to industrial partners, and governmental structures.

RUB is among the ten largest research universities in Germany, with a strong position in automatic control research both nationally and internationally. Prof. Martin Mönnigmann leads the Chair of Automatic Control and Systems Theory at Mechanical Engineering Department, regularly publishing in top journals and successfully acquiring and completing many third-party research projects.

UNIPI is one of the most renowned educational institutions in Italy, with a research group focused on model-based and data-driven optimal control methods and applications for chemical process control and optimization. Prof. Gabriele Pannocchia leads the Chemical Process Control group and has extensive experience in theoretical research, industrial collaborations, and scientific leadership. UNIPI is also involved in numerous EU-funded research projects and has a strong commitment to technology transfer and collaboration with SMEs.

Kick-off Meeting

The FrontSeat project, funded under the Horizon Europe program, had its Kick-off Meeting hosted by STU in Bratislava on October 27-28, 2022. The meeting involved presentations from project leaders, round table discussions, and the joint development of a detailed plan of activities for the project's specific objectives, which include strengthening cooperation with research groups from Western Europe, intensifying research in advanced automatic driving, and training young/senior researchers and project managers.

The participants were from STUBA: Miroslav Fikar, Radoslav Paulen, Juraj Oravec, Michal Tölgyessy, Danica Rosinová, Martin Gulan, Oliver Moravčík, Viltaré Platzner, Peter Cuninka, Alžbeta Lapšanská and Martin Grančay, from UNIPI: Gabriele Pannocchia, Francesca Ceron and Michele Padrone and from RUB: Martin Mönnigmann, Raphael Dyrska and Christiane Wüllner.

Academia Meets Industry

On the 28th of February, at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of STU in Bratislava, the first Academia Meets Industry seminar took place.

Academia Meets Industry seminars are aimed to stimulate discussion between academia and industry managers and practitioners. We believe in the need for the industry to play an active role in this discussion to help shaping the academic research agenda that reflects their pressing and emerging issues.

The newly formed industrial-academic council involves representatives from a total of eleven companies: ATP Journal, Garrett Motion Slovakia, IQLOGY, Photoneo, Prosystemy, Schunk, Slovnaft, SmartBase, SOVA Digital, VÚEZ and ŽP Výskumno-vývojové centrum.

The 24th International Conference
on Process Control

Date: June 6-9, 2023

Location: Štrbské Pleso, Slovakia

Organized by: STUBA

The 24th International Conference on Process Control, organized by FrontSeat partners, will take place in June 2023. The aim of the event is to assess cutting-edge techniques, design procedures, and instruments in process control. It will bring together experts in theory and practitioners in control systems, and Professor Pannocchia from UNIPI is scheduled to give a plenary lecture.

In addition to plenary and keynote lectures, joint publications, parallel sessions, a poster session, and a dedicated workshop, the conference will also include a variety of social activities.

This event is an ideal platform for anyone interested in learning about new developments, discovering innovative instruments and design procedures, or exploring the latest trends in process control.

The Second “Academia Meets Industry” Seminar

Date: June 15-16, 2023

Location: Patince, Slovakia

Organized by: STUBA

Stay tuned for more info soon!

FrontSeat Summer School on Embedded Optimal Control

Date: September 12-15, 2023

Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

Organized by: STUBA

Stay tuned for more info soon!

The FrontSeat team is very pro-active, organizing a variety of events, seminars, and discussions throughout the year. The following are some of our past events.

Horizon Europe Info Day and Workshops Supervised by UNIPI

STUBA Project Center visit UNIPI Research Services Office

Visits and research cooperation

• Visit of Professor Pannocchia at STU
• Guest Lecture from the Industry
• Young Researchers from STU at Ruhr University Bochum
• Research Exchange from RUB to STUBA
• Researchers from STU at the University of Pisa

Research Seminar on Smart Cybernetics

The Research Seminar on Smart Cybernetics is held as a discussion seminar among the students and researchers from the research groups of the FrontSeat project partners, their networks and the general public.

Some of the seminars held so far include:

• Modeling and Optimization of Low-Pressure Gas-Carburizing Furnaces
• Explicit Model Predictive Control for PDEs
• Scientific session of the FrontSeat plenary meeting
• Soft Sensors: Applications and Rumination
• Systems Identification Algorithms and Software Tools for the Application of MPC in Process Control Systems

Convexification Techniques for Stationary/
Dynamic Global Optimization and Set-Based Computing

Radoslav Paulen, from the Department of Information Engineering and Process Control at STUBA, recently held a seminar in cooperation with B. Chachuat, M. Villanueva and B. Houska, focused on the the state-of-the-art approaches to convexification of algebraic (factorable) functions and to the bounding of the solutions of parametric ordinary differential equations.

Click on the video below to watch the whole talk!

FrontSeat publications are accessible to everyone.

You can access all of our research resources and scientific publications on Zenodo.

Contact us:

Project Coordinator:
Prof. Miroslav Fikar
Tel.: +421 918 674 354
E-mail: miroslav.fikar@stuba.sk

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